Teen arrested for Facebook blackmail

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MANILA, Philippines—Agents of the National Bureau of Investigation arrested Thursday in an entrapment operation at a Manila school a 15-year-old boy who allegedly blackmailed and extorted P15,000 from another teenager through the social networking site Facebook.

Members of the NBI Technical Investigation Division arrested the suspected cyber-bully (name withheld because of his minor age) at an undisclosed school in Binondo, Manila, during the  payoff.

It was learned that the boy had blackmailed a 15-year-old schoolmate into paying him P15,000 in exchange for not uploading his nude photographs on the Internet, particularly on Facebook.

According to an NBI report, the teenager posed as a girl using the alias “Yuri Kimberly” and befriended his schoolmate.

The victim told NBI investigators that during one of their chats, Yuri Kimberly asked him to send a photograph of himself in the nude and he obliged. After he sent the  picture, his Facebook friend allegedly started blackmailing him and directed him to pay P15,000, giving him a Sunday deadline.

The scared victim immediately told his parents of the blackmail and they sought the help of the NBI, whose investigators discovered that Yuri Kimberly was actually a boy.

Apart from tracing the origin of the Facebook account, NBI investigators found suspicious Yuri Kimberly’s instructions of placing the demanded money in specific sections of the Binondo school which gave rise to the suspicion that the blackmailer went to the same school.

The NBI immediately arranged an entrapment operation on Thursday afternoon and rigged a surveillance camera where the blackmailer was seen collecting P15,000 from a notebook deliberately left behind by the victim on his instructions.

When NBI agents pounced on him, the boy readily admitted posing as Yuri Kimberly online.

The youthful offender faces charges of violation of Republic Act 7610 or the Anti-Child Abuse Act and extortion in the city prosecutor’s office but was entrusted to the care of his parents because of his minor age.